River Time

How to summarize 5 days and 4 nights on the Rogue River? A little piece of heaven. Serendipity. Spontaneity. Laughter. Danger without consequence. Stargazing. Sun worshipping. Playing in God's water park. Ahhhhhh!

This being Avery's coming of age trip, the center of attention was on her, and she was up to the limelight. Funny, adventuresome, conversational, charming, engaging. Avery's quite the photographer, and some of the photos in the trip album were taken by her.

The village that accompanied her included:

Aunt Laura, the wittiest and most intuitive woman I have ever met in my life. What a keeper. Aunt Laura knows the words to every broadway musical, childhood song, and popular song ever written. She can quote entire poems, and her story of the day she helped her dog get inseminated and her subsequent lesson on the birds and bees when she was ten was a real howler.



Mary, aka Mom, mylifelong friend, who laughed more than any of us, particularly when decked by Uncle Rich as he got up to swim to the bears. Afflicted with a penchant for collecting, her bags grew heavier as the trip went on.



Miss Terry, forever young, athletic, an outdoorswoman extraordinaire. My buddy girl scout leader, and Avery's too. Miss Terry took the first river swim, in the first rapid, cause she was brave enough to start the trip in a kayak.

Jack, who has been on three trips with me now, a great rafter, kayaker, camper, helper, philosopher, and humarist. Jack read three books on the trip, while I drank three bottles of wine. Jack hiked, I sat on the rocks.




Uncle Rich, the kayaking eagle scout who paddled his ducky through every rapid without once taking a swim and was convinced that he could swim across the river to get a closer look at the bears. Perhaps a bit too much of the grapes talking. Richard shared his "breaks pipeline" philosophy: think of breaks in life as an endless pipeline, that never gets empty, and when someone else gets a break, there's still plenty for you.

For photos of the entire trip, visit my photo website by following the link in the right column. I will try to add more details on the trip to this blog soon!